KOZUBOWSKI CHARGE IS A FIRST

Robert DavisCHICAGO TRIBUNE

In spite of Chicago`s history of official corruption, City Clerk Walter Kozubowski is the first citywide government official in modern political times to be charged with a crime. The three citywide offices are mayor, clerk and treasurer.

Of those top jobs, only one officeholder has been convicted of a crime in recent times, and that was Mayor Harold Washington, who served 40 days for failing to file federal income tax returns while he was a state legislator, years before he became mayor.

It has been in the ranks of the City Council where graft has most often thrived.

Since 1973, 17 aldermen or former aldermen have been convicted on federal charges, and two others, former Aldermen Fred Roti (1st) and William Henry

(24th), are facing federal charges.

Henry`s trial was halted in October when he was stricken with lung cancer. Roti is to stand trial starting March 16.

In most of the aldermanic corruption cases of the last 20 years, the charges involved bribe-taking, although in one case, Ald. Stanley Zydlo (26th) pleaded guilty in 1980 to paying a bribe for helping two relatives pass a Fire Department entrance exam.